Reform, freedom & people's movements

Asaf Jahis (Nizams of Hyderabad)

1724–1948 CE

The dynasty of the Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1948). It was founded by the Mughal viceroy Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, who made himself independent in the Deccan after defeating Mubariz Khan at Shakar Kheda in 1724. After his death the French and the English backed rival heirs. The Northern Circars passed to the French in 1753 and to the English in 1766, and the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema to the East India Company in 1800, leaving Telangana as the Telugu heart of the Nizam's Dominions. Bound to the British by the subsidiary alliance of 1798–1800, the Nizams governed through ministers such as Chandu Lal and Salar Jung I. They assigned Berar to the British in 1853 and leased it in 1902. Mir Osman Ali Khan's reign brought Osmania University and the rebuilding of Hyderabad, and his government ended in September 1948.

British Crown (Madras Presidency)

1858–1947 CE

The government of the Telugu districts of the Madras Presidency by the British Crown, from the transfer of the East India Company's territories in 1858 to independence in 1947. Under a Governor in Council at Madras, the coast and Rayalaseema were ruled through Collectors, a Board of Revenue, district and taluk boards and municipalities. The districts were redrawn (Godavari and Kistna in 1859, Anantapur in 1882, Guntur in 1904, Chittoor in 1911, West Godavari in 1925), and the Nizam ceded the Bhadrachalam and Rekapalli taluks in 1860. The ryotwari lands were surveyed and settled, and the inams registered by the Inam Commission. The great zamindaris of Vizianagaram, Bobbili, Pithapuram, Venkatagiri, Kalahasti and Karvetinagar kept their permanent settlements. The Godavari and Krishna deltas were irrigated, and railways reached Bezwada and Waltair. The great famine of 1876–78 emptied the Ceded Districts. The Rampa rising of 1879–80 was the last that needed regular troops in the Presidency.

Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy

1846 CE

Member of a family of former poligars (local chiefs) of Uyyalawada and Nossam, in the Kurnool country. In 1846 he raised the kattubadis (village revenue peons) against the Company's government, looted the Koilkuntla treasury and fought troops at Giddalur. He was captured in October 1846 and hanged at Koilkuntla. The district manuals of 1875 and 1886 tell the story from the government's side.

Kandukuri Veeresalingam

1848–1919 CE

Social reformer, journalist and writer of Rajahmundry (1848–1919). He worked for the education of girls and the remarriage of widows, and conducted the first widow remarriage in the Madras Presidency in 1881. He wrote the early Telugu social novel Rajasekhara Charitramu.

Maulvi Allauddin

c. 1857–1884 CE

Muslim religious teacher of Hyderabad who, with the Rohilla leader Turrebaz Khan, led the attack on the British Residency on 17 July 1857. He hid in villages near the city for about two years, was caught at Mangalpalli, and was sentenced by the Nizam's court to transportation for life. He was sent to the Andamans in June 1859 and died there in about 1884.

Turrebaz Khan

1857–1859 CE

Rohilla jamadar (captain of armed retainers) who, with Maulvi Allauddin, led the attack on the British Residency at Hyderabad on 17 July 1857. He was wounded and captured, tried by the Nizam's court and sentenced to transportation for life. He escaped from jail in January 1859 and was killed when a police party caught up with him.

Ramji Gond

c. 1860 CE

Gond leader of the Nirmal country in today's Adilabad district. In 1860 he led Gonds who joined bands of Rohillas against the Nizam's government. The Collector of Nirmal attacked their camp in April 1860; about thirty rebels were killed, among them the Rohilla chief Mian Saheb Khurd, but Ramji escaped. He was later caught, tried and hanged at Nirmal.

Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao

1867–1938 CE

Founder of the Telugu paper Andhra Patrika and maker of the balm Amrutanjan (1867–1938), from Elakurru in Krishna district. He backed the non-cooperation movement through his paper, chaired a Madras meeting against the Simon Commission, and was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932. He was elected to the Central Legislature in 1934.

Chandrayya of Rampa

c. 1879–1881 CE

Leader of hill bands in the Rampa rebellion of 1879–1880 in the Godavari and Visakhapatnam hill tracts, a rising against the exactions of the mansabdar of Rampa, new toddy rules and the police. He burnt the Addatigala police station in 1879, held out for months, and was killed in 1880 or 1881, the sources differ, after being betrayed by another rebel.

Karam Tammanna Dora

1879–1880 CE

One of the chief leaders of the Rampa rebellion of 1879–1880 in the Godavari and Visakhapatnam hill tracts. The police history calls him the chief leader of the rising and says a police officer shot him on 25 July 1880; the Godavari gazetteer has him leading a raid into Visakhapatnam district in October 1880.

Mutnuri Krishna Rao

1879–1945 CE

Editor of the Krishna Patrika of Machilipatnam (1879–1945), a leading Telugu nationalist paper. He organised Bipin Chandra Pal's tour of the Telugu districts in 1907, helped build the National College at Machilipatnam, and was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930, the civil disobedience of 1932 and the individual satyagraha of 1940–41.

Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao

1881–1962 CE

Congress leader and lawyer of Vijayawada, born in 1881. He took part in every Congress campaign from the Swadeshi movement of 1905 to Quit India, and was jailed in 1922, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1940–41 and 1942–43. He led the Swaraj Party in Andhra, helped the Hyderabad State Congress in 1947–48, and was Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, 1956–62.

Cherukuvada Venkata Narasimham

1887–1964 CE

Congress speaker and writer from Ghantasala in Krishna district (1887–1964). He worked on the nationalist papers Desabhimani and Krishna Patrika, taught at the National College in Machilipatnam, and was jailed for a year each in the non-cooperation movement of 1921, the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932. He was known as Upanyasa Chakravarti.

Vemuri Ramji Rao

c. 1891–1963 CE

Social worker of Machilipatnam (about 1891–1963) who worked for Dalits and tribal people. He set up a high school and hostel for Dalit students at Machilipatnam. In 1930, when Gandhi was arrested, he gave up the title Rao Saheb and his nominated seat in the Madras Legislative Council in protest. He founded and edited the Telugu weekly Deenabandhu.

Suravaram Pratapa Reddy

1896–1953 CE

Telugu writer, editor and public worker of Hyderabad State, from Alampur taluk of Mahbubnagar district (1896–1953). He founded and edited the Golkonda Patrika from 1925 to 1949, presided over the first Andhra Conference at Jogipet in 1930, and wrote a social history of the Telugu people that won the Sahitya Akademi award.

Alluri Sitarama Raju

1897–1924 CE

Leader of the Rampa or Agency rebellion of 1922–1924 in the hill tracts of the Godavari and Vizagapatam districts. He raided police stations for arms, held out against special police and the Assam Rifles for nearly two years, and was captured and shot dead in May 1924. Government and nationalist accounts differ over his aims and the manner of his death.

Gam Mallu Dora

1900 CE

Koya leader from Battapanukulu in the Visakhapatnam hill tracts (born 1900), one of the two chief lieutenants of Alluri Sitarama Raju in the Rampa rebellion of 1922–1924. He was captured in September 1923, sentenced to death in May 1924, and served his commuted sentence in the Andamans and an internment camp until 1937. In 1952 he was elected to the first Lok Sabha for Visakhapatnam.

Kakani Venkataratnam

1900–1972 CE

Congress leader of Krishna district (1900–1972). He was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932, and detained for three years in the Quit India movement. After independence he was president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee and Minister for Agriculture. He died at Vijayawada on 25 December 1972, during the movement for a separate Andhra State.

N. G. Ranga

1900 CE

Peasant leader and economist from Nidubrolu in Guntur district (born 1900). He organised ryots' associations in Andhra from 1923, founded the Andhra Socialist Party in 1934, ran schools of politics for young workers, and helped found the All India Kisan Sabha. He was jailed for organising rural ryot societies and again in 1942. In 1951 he left the Congress and founded the Krishikar Lok Party, and he sat in the Rajya Sabha from 1952.

Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao)

1902–1975 CE

Teacher, social reformer and atheist of Vijayawada (1902–1975), known as Gora. A science lecturer until 1940, he was jailed in 1943 for celebrating Independence Day and detained twice during the Quit India movement. He worked against untouchability, encouraged his children to marry across caste, edited the Telugu weekly Sangham and the English monthly The Atheist, and wrote Positive Atheism.

Anne Anjayya

1905–1975 CE

Congress and Forward Bloc worker from Mudunur in Krishna district (1905–1975). He trained volunteers from 1920, spread khadi in Hyderabad State in the 1930s, was jailed and fined in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and the civil disobedience of 1932, ran underground papers against the war, and was detained from December 1942 to September 1945.

Baddam Yella Reddy

1906–1978 CE

Telangana leader from Karimnagar district (1906–1978). He was jailed in the salt satyagraha of 1930 and in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of 1938–39. He led the Andhra Mahasabha in 1946 and was a leader of the Communist Party in Hyderabad during the Telangana armed struggle. Later he sat in the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the Andhra Pradesh assembly.

Jamalapuram Keshava Rao

1908–1953 CE

Hyderabad State Congress leader from Khammam district (1908–1953). He left a government clerk's post to join the State Congress, was jailed in the satyagraha of 1938–39 and again in the campaign for joining India in 1947–48, and was a member of its Action Committee. He was later nominated to the Constituent Assembly.

Makhdoom Mohiuddin

1908–1969 CE

Urdu poet, trade union leader and communist of Hyderabad (1908–1969). He was secretary of the Communist Party in Hyderabad State, was jailed in 1944 for a speech, and was named by the Hyderabad government in 1949 as a member of the communists' State Committee during the Telangana armed struggle. From 1957 until his death he led the communist group in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council.

Ravi Narayana Reddy

1908 CE

Telangana leader who went to jail in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of 1938. He led the left wing that took control of the Andhra Mahasabha in 1944, and was a leader of the Communist Party in Hyderabad during the Telangana armed struggle. Congress and government sources of the time describe that struggle in sharply different terms.

Arutla Ramachandra Reddy

1909 CE

Worker of the Arya Samaj and the Andhra Mahasabha from Kolanupaka in Nalgonda district, born in 1909. He was beaten in police custody during the Vandemataram movement of 1938, confined to his village in 1945, and held for a year as an undertrial prisoner. The Razakars looted his house in 1947–48. He joined the Communist Party in 1952.

Mir Osman Ali Khan (Asaf Jah VII)

1911–1948 CE

Seventh and last ruling Nizam of Hyderabad (1911–1948), son of Mahbub Ali Khan. He ruled directly from 1914 to 1919 and then through an Executive Council. His reign brought Osmania University (founded by his farman of 1917, with Urdu as the medium of teaching), the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs built after the Musi flood of 1908, the City Improvement Board, the new High Court and the Osmania General Hospital. His government ended in September 1948, when the Indian Army entered the state and a military governor took charge.

Puchalapalli Sundarayya

1913 CE

Communist leader from Alaganipadu in Nellore district (born 1913). He left his studies for the national movement in 1930, was a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee from 1934, led the left wing of the Andhra Socialist Party, and kept in touch with the Telangana communists during the struggle of 1946–1948. He sat in the Rajya Sabha from 1952.

Komaragiri Narayana Rao

1915–1978 CE

Hyderabad State Congress worker from Khammam (1915–1978). He worked in the Andhra Mahasabha from 1930, joined the State Congress in 1938, and was jailed at Warangal for nine months in the Quit India movement of 1942–43. He later worked for land reform and the Bhoodan movement and wrote books in Telugu and English on Hyderabad.

Renukunta Rami Reddy

1915–1948 CE

Landlord and Andhra Mahasabha worker of Renukunta, in Bhongir taluk of Nalgonda district (born 1915). He trained and led the village's armed squad against the Razakars and the Nizam's police, and was killed when they besieged the village on 4 March 1948 after a fight of about twelve hours. Government, Congress-side and communist sources all record the fight but differ on how he died and how many were killed.

Akbar Hydari (Nawab Hyder Nawaz Jung)

1917 CE

Hyderabad official and minister under Mir Osman Ali Khan. As Secretary in the Education Department he proposed in 1917 the university that became Osmania University, teaching in Urdu. He was Finance Member of the Executive Council from 1919 into the 1930s, President of the state railway board after the state bought the railway, and chairman of a committee of the princes' ministers on the federal plan in 1934–35. By 1938 he headed the government, which banned the new Hyderabad State Congress that year; he was also Chancellor of Osmania University.

Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao

1917–1984 CE

Communist leader of Nalgonda district (1917–1984) and historian of the Telangana armed struggle. Expelled from Osmania University in the Vandemataram strike, he joined the Communist Party in 1939, led its Nalgonda district committee and joined its state secretariat in March 1948. He sat in the Lok Sabha from 1957 to 1962, later led a revolutionary communist group, and spent long years underground and in jail. His Telugu history of the struggle was published in 1988, after his death.

Arutla Lakshminarasimha Reddy

1918–1976 CE

Lawyer and communist leader from Kolanupaka in Nalgonda district (1918–1976). He organised campaigns against the jagirdars in Nalgonda in 1936–37, led a batch in the Hyderabad State Congress satyagraha of October 1938 and was jailed until April 1939. He joined the Communist Party in 1940, sat on the working committee of the Andhra Mahasabha, and was wanted by the Nizam's government in 1947. He later served in both houses of the Andhra Pradesh legislature.

Arutla Kamala Devi

1921 CE

Communist worker from Bhongir taluk of Nalgonda district, born in 1921. She was general secretary of the Hyderabad Women's Association in 1942–44 and worked underground in the Telangana struggle of 1946–48, organising women against the Razakars. She was later a member of the Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh legislative assemblies from 1952 to 1967.

Gam Gantam Dora

1922–1924 CE

Koya leader from Battapanukulu in the Visakhapatnam hill tracts, elder brother of Gam Mallu Dora and one of the two chief lieutenants of Alluri Sitarama Raju in the Rampa rebellion of 1922–1924. He kept a small band together after Sitarama Raju's death in May 1924 and was killed by a police patrol on 7 June 1924.

Gottimukkala Gopal Reddy

1926–1948 CE

Communist squad leader from Atmakur in Suryapet taluk of Nalgonda district (born about 1926). A poor farmer's son, he joined the struggle against the Nizam in 1946 and rose to lead a guerrilla squad. He was killed with four companions when soldiers and Razakars surrounded his squad at Patarlapadu (Patarlapahad), in Suryapet taluk, in 1947–48.

Doddi Komaraiah

1946 CE

Young member of the Andhra Mahasabha's village volunteers at Kadavendi, in Jangaon taluk, shot dead during a procession past the house of the deshmukh of Visnur in 1946; P. Sundarayya dates it to 4 July 1946. The two communist histories of the Telangana struggle call him its first martyr and say his death set off a wider rising. They differ on who fired, on his place in the village organisation and on what the police did.

Qasim Razvi

1946–1948 CE

President of the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, the Muslim political party of Hyderabad, from 1946, and leader of its armed volunteers, the Razakars, in 1947–48. He opposed accession to India and responsible government, pressed the Nizam's government in its talks with Delhi, and made speeches in 1948 that the Government of India protested against. Congress-side histories blame the Razakars under him for raids on villages; a US report of August 1948 records his threats against Hindus if India attacked. After the Police Action the Razakars were disbanded and their leaders arrested.

Mir Laik Ali

1947–1948 CE

Last Prime Minister of the Nizam's government of Hyderabad, from December 1947 to 17 September 1948. He took office after the Standstill Agreement crisis, negotiated with Delhi in 1948 and, according to a US intelligence report of August 1948, accepted the draft agreement of June 1948 that the Nizam then rejected. His ministry raised spending on the army and police and turned to the United Nations; he resigned on the day the Nizam ordered a ceasefire. Accounts of him differ sharply between the Congress-side histories, the new government of 1949 and his own later book.

J. N. Chaudhuri

1948–1949 CE

Indian Army officer who commanded the main force in the Police Action against Hyderabad in September 1948 and then governed the state as Military Governor until 1 December 1949. With a cabinet nominated by the Government of India, he disbanded the Razakars and other private armies, brought in officers from the Indian provinces and toured the districts; his government's publicity of 1949 presented his rule as secular and even-handed.

Shoebullah Khan

1948 CE

Editor of the nationalist newspaper Imroze in Hyderabad, which criticised the Razakars. He was shot and attacked with swords on 21 August 1948, a few weeks before the Indian Army entered Hyderabad State. The new government pensioned his widow, and a special tribunal tried the case.

Bandagi (Shaik Bandagi)

before 1942 CE

Muslim farmer of Kamareddygudem, near Devaruppala in Jangaon taluk, who for about ten years fought a land case backed by the deshmukh of Visnur and won it. He was murdered near the village bus stop, in 1942 according to Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao, whose communist history of the Telangana struggle retells an account published in 1945. His grave became a place of an annual urs attended by Hindus and Muslims.

Bulusu Sambamurti

Congress leader of Kakinada and the Godavari districts who pressed for complete independence from 1924. He presided over the Andhra Provincial Independence League in 1928, was jailed for a year for campaigning against the Simon Commission, broke the salt laws at Chollangi in 1930, and was badly beaten by the police at Kakinada. He later became Speaker of the Madras Legislative Assembly.

Burgula Ramakrishna Rao

Lawyer and Congress leader of Hyderabad State. He was among the moderate leaders of the Andhra Mahasabha up to 1941, was arrested in the Quit India satyagraha of 1942 and led a satyagraha batch in May 1947. After the first general elections he became Chief Minister of Hyderabad State in 1952. He took part in the talks of February 1956 that settled the terms for joining Telangana to Andhra, and in October 1956 he was named governor of Kerala.

Chakali Ilamma

Washerwoman of Palakurthi, in Jangaon taluk, whose family worked for the Andhra Mahasabha's village sangham against the deshmukh of Visnur in the mid-1940s. Her husband and two sons were jailed in the Palakurthi case, and the deshmukh's men tried to seize the crop of the land she farmed. The two communist histories of the Telangana struggle tell the fight over her crop in different ways; P. Sundarayya calls her a symbol of its first phase.

Chilakamarti Lakshmi Narasimham

Telugu novelist, playwright and speaker of Rajahmundry in the early 20th century, a follower of Kandukuri Veeresalingam's social reform. Jayanti Ramayya in 1913 credited him with starting the Telugu historical novel on the model of Walter Scott, drawing on Tod's Annals of Rajasthan. His plays, above all Prasanna Yadavamu and Gayopakhyanamu, were very popular, and K. Sitaramaiya notes that he wrote and spoke although he was blind.

D. Seshagiri Rao

before 1948 CE

Communist organiser of the coal-mine workers of Kothagudem, in Khammam district. He built a party unit and a miners' union there from the early 1940s, went underground in the Telangana struggle, escaped from police custody and joined the armed squads. He was betrayed, caught and shot by the Nizam's police in 1947–48, and the police kept his death secret for months.

Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya

Congress leader of Guntur district, called Andhra Ratna. In April 1921 he led most of the people of Chirala and Perala to leave their homes rather than pay the taxes of a new municipality. He ran their camp on panchayat (village council) lines for eleven months and raised the Ramadandu volunteer corps.

Durgabai Deshmukh

Congress worker in Madras, one of the Telugu leaders who ran the salt satyagraha in the city in 1930. She led women volunteers, made salt at the Santhome beach on 5 May 1930 and was sentenced to a year's simple imprisonment. Sarojini Regani writes that she was held for a time in solitary confinement in Madurai jail.

Gadicherla Harisarvottama Rao

Nationalist journalist who, as a teacher trainee at Rajahmundry, was expelled and barred from government service in 1907 for his part in the Vande Mataram movement. He was jailed in 1908 for an article in his weekly Swaraj, and later led the Home Rule League in Andhra. Regani counts him among the first political prisoners of the movement in Andhra.

Gidugu Venkata Ramamurti

Telugu scholar of Parlakimidi who led the early 20th-century movement to write books in modern spoken Telugu instead of the old literary style. His opponents, among them Jayanti Ramayya in 1913, fought him through the Andhra Sahitya Parishat, but K. Sitaramaiya wrote in 1943 that he lived to see the universities accept the spoken style. He also learned the Savara language of the Visakhapatnam hills and compiled a Telugu-Savara dictionary (1914).

Gurajada Apparao

Telugu writer of Vizianagaram, author of Kanyasulkam (the bride-price), the first important social play in Telugu, which mocks the selling of young girls in marriage to old men. He was one of the leaders of the movement to write in spoken Telugu, invented the song metre Mutyala Saramulu, and is credited with beginning the Telugu short story.

Kala Venkata Rao

Congress organiser from Amalapuram in the Godavari district. He left his B.Sc. studies at Machilipatnam in the non-cooperation movement of 1920–21 and was jailed then. He was among the leaders banned from public work in 1932, was sentenced in the satyagraha of 1940–41, and on 29 July 1942 drafted the Andhra Congress instructions known as the Kurnool circular.

Kokkonda Venkataratnam

Telugu scholar, poet and journalist of the 19th century, a defender of the classical literary style. P. T. Raju wrote that his Narakasura Vijaya Vyayogamu was the first Telugu translation of a Sanskrit play to be printed. He ran the journal Andhra Bhasha Sanjivani, quarrelled in print with Kandukuri Veeresalingam, and later opposed Gidugu Ramamurti's spoken-Telugu movement.

Komarraju Lakshmana Rao

Telugu scholar and organiser who, as diwan (chief minister) to the Raja of Munagala, helped open the first Telugu library in Hyderabad in 1901. He founded the Vignana Chandrika Mandali, which published Telugu books on history and science, held Telugu examinations and prize competitions, and began a Telugu encyclopaedia. A Hyderabad history of the freedom movement calls him the first to see the need for close ties between Telangana and the Andhra districts.

Konda Venkatappayya

Congress leader of Guntur, known as Deshabhakta. He started the Krishna Patrika in 1902, led the movement for a separate Andhra province after 1910, and resigned from the Madras Legislative Council during non-cooperation. He headed the Guntur no-tax campaign of 1922 and was the Andhra 'dictator' of the salt satyagraha of 1930.

Madapati Hanumantha Rao

Leader of the Telugu awakening in Hyderabad State. He was a founder and, from 1922, the secretary of the Nizam Rashtra Andhra Jana Sangham, which worked through libraries, schools and publications and became the Andhra Mahasabha in 1930. He organised the first Hyderabad political conference, held at Kakinada in 1923.

Nyapathi Subba Rao

Lawyer of Rajahmundry and a leader of the moderate wing of the Congress in the Telugu districts. During the Vandemataram years of 1905–1908 he led the Swadeshi movement at Rajahmundry, interceded for expelled students, defended the men charged after the Kakinada club riot of 1907 and opened the National High School at Rajahmundry. In 1917 he signed the Madras Congress call for passive resistance to free the Home Rule leaders.

Panuganti Lakshminarasimha Rao

Telugu essayist, playwright and humorist of the early 20th century, best known for the Sakshi (The Spectator) essays, which appeared in weekly parts in the Andhra Patrika. He also wrote plays, among them Kanthabharanam and Radhakrishna, and early short stories. Critics disagreed about his humour: Chenchiah and Bhujanga Rao found it clean and kindly, K. Sitaramaiya at times obscene.

Pattabhi Sitaramayya

Congress leader of Machilipatnam and historian of the Indian National Congress. He worked for the National College and khadi in the Krishna district, planned the salt satyagraha in the Telugu districts in 1930, and was arrested during the boycott of the Simon Commission and again in 1930, 1932 and 1942. In 1939 he lost the election for Congress president to Subhas Chandra Bose.

Potti Sriramulu

before 1952 CE

Began a fast at Madras on 19 October 1952 for the forming of a separate Andhra State, and died on the night of 15 December 1952, the 58th day. His death set off protests across the Andhra districts. Four days later the Government of India announced that the state would be formed, and it came into being on 1 October 1953.

Rayaprolu Subba Rao

Telugu poet who led the 'new poetry' (bhava kavitvam) of the early 20th century, lyric verse on nature and idealised love written under the influence of English romantic poets. His Lalita (1909) and Trunakankanamu (1914) made his name. He was invited to the new Telugu chair at Osmania University, Hyderabad, in 1918–19, and was head of its Telugu department in 1944.

Swami Ramananda Tirtha

Leader of the Hyderabad State Congress, which the Nizam's government banned before it could meet in 1938. He was imprisoned in its satyagrahas of 1938, 1940 and 1942. As its president from 1946 he led the 'Join Indian Union' movement for Hyderabad's accession to India, which ended with the integration of the state in 1948.

Tanguturi Prakasam

Barrister and Congress leader of the Telugu districts of Madras. He chaired the Madras meeting against the Rowlatt Bills in 1919, gave up his practice during non-cooperation, led the salt satyagraha in Madras city in 1930 and became Revenue Minister in 1937. He later served as Chief Minister of Madras and then as the first Chief Minister of the Andhra State. His ministry sat at Kurnool, and it fell after a vote of no confidence in November 1954.

Tenneti Viswanatham

Congress leader of Visakhapatnam. In the 1920s he was among the Andhra leaders who pressed for complete independence, and in 1928 he was treasurer of the Andhra Provincial Independence League. He led the salt satyagraha in Visakhapatnam district in 1930, was banned from public work in 1932, sat on the Andhra Congress Working Committee in 1937 and was detained in the Quit India movement of 1942.

Tirupati Venkata Kavulu

Pair of Telugu poets, Tirupati Sastri and Venkata Sastri, who wrote together in the early 20th century. They were famous for satavadhanam, composing verse on a hundred subjects at once before an audience, and for plays on the Mahabharata such as Pandavavijayamu. Writers of the old school, they translated the Devi Bhagavatam and Arnold's Light of Asia, and trained many later poets.

Unnava Lakshminarayana

Lawyer and Congress worker of Guntur. Government intelligence reports named him during the Vandemataram movement; he gave up his legal practice in the non-cooperation movement, and in 1921 he was jailed for a year after going to enquire into the forest troubles of Palnadu. In 1932 the government forbade him, with Unnava Lakshmibayamma and others, to hold a civil disobedience conference.

V. Prabhakar Rao

before 1948 CE

Communist and president of the Andhra Mahasabha's committee in Karimnagar district, from Polampalli in Karimnagar taluk. In 1947–48 he led armed squads against the Nizam's police and the Razakars, and was killed with several companions when police surrounded his squad near Mandapuram, in Huzurabad taluk, in January 1948.

Vattikota Alwar Swamy

Telugu writer and publisher from Nalgonda district who rose from poverty without schooling. In 1938 he founded the Desoddharaka Granthamala, which published small books to spread national feeling. He ran the arrangements for the Andhra Mahasabha's session at Chilkur, became its organising secretary at Bhongir in 1944, and moved from nationalism to the Communist Party.

Vavilikolanu Subbarao

Telugu scholar-poet of the early 20th century who translated Valmiki's Ramayana into Telugu verse line by line and dedicated it to Rama. K. Sitaramaiya records that he believed Ontimitta in Kadapa district was the birthplace of Bammera Potana, renovated the Rama temple there and founded a school of Rama devotees. He was one of the classical scholars criticised by Gidugu Ramamurti in the language quarrel.

Vedam Venkataraya Sastri

Telugu scholar, critic and playwright, counted in 1928 among the leading critics of the day, given the title Mahamahopadhyaya. He wrote learned commentaries on classical poems, the historical play Prataparudriyamu about the last Kakatiya king, and translations from Sanskrit. A defender of the classical literary style, he argued with Kandukuri Veeresalingam and opposed Gidugu Ramamurti's spoken-Telugu movement.

Hyderabad

City on the Musi founded by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah around 1589–91 as Bhagnagar. It was the Qutb Shahi capital until 1687, then a Mughal provincial seat. From the 1720s it was the capital of the Asaf Jahi Nizams.

Nalgonda

Town in southern Telangana, head of a district of the Nizam's Dominions. The Imperial Gazetteer of 1909 describes its fort, its market of Osmanganj and the Telugu-speaking district around it, which gained Cherial (Jangaon) and Kodar in 1905. The district suffered in the famines of 1877 and 1899–1900, and in 1946–48 it was a centre of the peasant struggle and of Razakar raids.

Rajahmundry

Town on the left bank of the Godavari, the ancient Rajamahendravaram. It was the eastern capital of the Reddis, and a frontier fortress fought over by Orissa, the Bahmanis, Vijayanagara and Golconda. It was Bussy's headquarters in the 1750s, and in the 1920s the home of the Andhra Historical Research Society.

Suryapet

Town on the old Hyderabad–Masulipatam road in Nalgonda district, head of a taluk of the Nizam's Dominions. The Imperial Gazetteer of 1909 records its rice lands and a fast-growing population; in 1948, according to Sarojini Regani's Congress-side history, villages of the taluk were the scene of a no-tax campaign and of killings by Razakars and the Nizam's police.

Osmania University

1918 CE

University at Hyderabad founded by Mir Osman Ali Khan's farman of 26 April 1917 and established by charter in 1918, the first in India to teach through an Indian language, Urdu, with English compulsory. Its translation bureau put the college textbooks into Urdu. In the 1930s the university moved to a new campus at Adikmet, where the Arts College was built at a sanctioned cost of Rs 27,13,000. In 1938 students who sang Vande Mataram in a hostel were expelled.

Language & literature

From Prakrit inscriptions and the first Telugu records to Nannaya, Pothana, Vemana and modern prose.

Music & dance

Annamacharya, Tyagaraja, Kuchipudi, Perini and the folk performance traditions.

Religion & philosophy

Buddhism, Jainism, Shaiva and Vaishnava movements, Islam and the Sufi orders, Christianity and village deities.

Forts & warfare

Hill forts, city walls, armies and the battles that changed who ruled the region.

Crafts & textiles

Kalamkari, ikat weaving, Nirmal paintings, Kondapalli and Etikoppaka toys and other crafts.

Government & administration

Kingship, the nayankara system, village officers, land revenue and law.

Society & communities

Castes, communities and tribes, and how social life changed over time, from scholarly sources.

Folk songs & oral traditions

Burrakatha, Oggu katha, Yakshaganam and the heroic ballads of Palnadu and Bobbili.

Inscriptions & sources

How we know: inscriptions, coins, travellers' accounts, the Mackenzie kaifiyats and archives.

Legislatures & government, 1952–2014

1952–2014 CE

The elected houses that made laws for the Telugu districts from the first general elections of 1952 to the division of 2014: the Hyderabad Legislative Assembly, the Madras Assembly and the Andhra Legislative Assembly at Kurnool, and the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council at Hyderabad. With the chief ministers, governors and periods of President's rule that the official records name.

How the map changed

1766–2014 CE

How the borders and districts of the Telugu country changed from the Company's take-over of the coast and Rayalaseema (1766–1800) to the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014: the Madras districts and the Nizam's dominions, the Andhra State of 1953, the reorganisation of 1956, the boundary changes of 1959–60, the new districts of 1953–1979, and the ten districts that became Telangana.